Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
In an image forming apparatus typified by a multi-functional peripheral, a light is irradiated to a photoreceptor to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor based on image data. Then, a charged toner is supplied on the formed electrostatic latent image to make a visible image, and subsequently, the visible image is transferred to be fixed on a paper sheet and output outside the apparatus.
A typical image forming apparatus includes a developing device that uses a developer such as a toner to perform development. The developing device rotates a developer by a rotator or similar unit to charge the developer, and electrically attaches the developer on an electrostatic latent image, thus executing the development. The developing device is appropriately supplied with the toner consumed by the development by a toner container removably attachable to the image forming apparatus. A technique regarding toner supply has been proposed.
There has been proposed an image forming apparatus that includes a toner container, a developing unit, a magnetic flow rate sensor, and a controller. The developing unit is replenished with a toner from the toner container. The magnetic flow rate sensor measures a replenishment amount of the toner replenished from the toner container to the developing unit. The controller controls the toner replenishment from the toner container to the developing unit based on the toner replenishment amount measured by the magnetic flow rate sensor.
The following toner end detector included in an electrophotographic apparatus has been proposed. This toner end detector includes a toner housing chamber, an agitator, and a toner sensor. The toner housing chamber houses a toner. The agitator is rotationally driven in this toner housing chamber, and replenishes the toner in this toner housing chamber to the developing unit. The toner sensor is installed in the toner housing chamber, and detects a thickness of the toner in this toner housing chamber. The toner end detector uses an analog output voltage of this toner sensor that varies in accordance with the rotation of the agitator in the toner housing chamber, thus detecting the toner end based on the variation of this analog output voltage.